Multi-layered scheme incorporating new facilities for various users in a pavilion-like collection of spaces, part of BDP’s long-term masterplan for the All England Lawn Tennis Club

The scheme is E-shaped in plan, with the back spine rising up Somerset Road and incorporating three discrete main entrances for different user groups – players, members, press, officials and ballboys/girls – as it steps up the 9m level change.

The building appears as two-storeys above ground at the northern end, unfolding and becoming more open towards the southern end, where the building is four storeys tall.

The structural challenge of the Millennium Building lay in the organisation of the elements to respond to the angles and projections of the three triangular wings, which step back at the upper levels to allow for sun penetration to the external garden spaces.

The concrete frame is based on an orthogonal grid, with alternate rows of columns shifted to create a diagonal column layout which allows substantial standardization and repetition. The curved roof structure is a steel framework supported on cantilevering exposed concrete columns.

Materials throughout include Iroko wood, glass, fabric awnings and a timber soffit to the curved roof of colour-coated green standing seam aluminium, to relate to Centre Court and the new No 1 Court.